Gastroparesis and Heartburn: What to Log

Updated 29 Oct 2026

With gastroparesis, nausea and fullness get logged first. Heartburn often goes into the notes as a passing line, even on weeks when it burns every evening.

This guide covers what to log about heartburn with gastroparesis: urgent signs, when it burns, meals, bedtime and position, medicines, and what to bring to a GP. Your GP or care team decides treatment.

Know the urgent signs

The NHS gastroparesis page lists signs that need urgent help, including sudden and severe tummy pain, sick with blood in it, sick that is dark brown or black and looks like coffee grounds or soil, and sick that looks and smells like poo (NHS gastroparesis guidance). If any of these happen, get help now rather than logging and waiting.

The heartburn page also advises seeing a GP if you have other symptoms alongside heartburn, such as food getting stuck in your throat, frequently being sick, or losing weight for no reason (NHS heartburn guidance). If at any time you feel your symptoms are getting worse, it says to contact a GP or call 111 (NHS heartburn guidance).

Note these lines at the top of your log so they are easy to check on a bad night.

In Gastroparesis Journey, My Care Team keeps the numbers you would call.

Log when it burns

The NHS says symptoms of gastroparesis start after eating and may include feeling full sooner than usual, nausea and vomiting, tummy pain, heartburn, and bloating (NHS gastroparesis guidance). It describes heartburn as a burning sensation in the middle of your chest, and says reflux can also bring an unpleasant sour taste in your mouth (NHS heartburn guidance).

It adds that reflux can come with a cough or hiccups that keep coming back, a hoarse voice, bad breath, and bloating and feeling sick (NHS heartburn guidance).

For each episode, log the time, minutes since you last ate, a 0 to 10 score, how long it lasted, and any sour taste, cough, or hoarse voice. Count heartburn days each week. The NHS 3-week mark is then easy to see.

In Gastroparesis Journey, the Daily check-in holds the score.

Log meal size and timing

For gastroparesis, the NHS lists diet changes that may help, including eating 4 to 6 small meals a day rather than 3 large meals, reducing the amount of insoluble fiber you eat, and having a liquid diet such as soups or blended meals (NHS gastroparesis guidance). For heartburn, it advises eating smaller, more frequent meals and not having food or drink that triggers your symptoms (NHS heartburn guidance).

It lists coffee, tomatoes, alcohol, chocolate, and fatty or spicy foods among food and drink that can cause or worsen heartburn (NHS heartburn guidance).

Log meal size as small, medium, or large, whether it was liquid or solid, and anything on that list. Over two weeks, you can see whether burning follows larger meals or particular foods. A dietitian, if you are referred to one, can use the same record.

For fullness at meals, see early fullness meal notes.

In Gastroparesis Journey, the Food Tracker holds each meal.

Log bedtime and position

The NHS says reflux symptoms are often worse when lying down and when bending over, and advises not eating within 3 or 4 hours before bed and not wearing clothes that are tight around your waist (NHS heartburn guidance). It says raising the head of your bed by around 10 to 20cm, so your chest and head are above your waist, may help, but not by using extra pillows, as this can increase pressure on your belly (NHS heartburn guidance).

Log the time of your last meal, your bedtime, and whether heartburn woke you or came on when you lay down or bent over. If you raise the head of the bed, log the start date so before and after weeks can be compared.

Log night heartburn and night nausea on the same line.

For nights, see overnight nausea beside the last meal.

In Gastroparesis Journey, the Daily Journal holds night notes.

Log medicines and bring it to a GP

The NHS says a pharmacist may recommend antacids or alginates, which are best taken with food or soon after eating, and that they help in the short term but should not be taken regularly for long periods (NHS heartburn guidance). It lists some medicines, such as anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen, among things that can cause or worsen heartburn, and advises not stopping any prescribed medicine without speaking to a doctor first (NHS heartburn guidance).

It advises seeing a GP if lifestyle changes and pharmacy medicines are not helping, or you have heartburn most days (NHS heartburn guidance); the gastroparesis page says the same for heartburn most days for 3 weeks or more (NHS gastroparesis guidance).

Log each dose and whether it helped. Bring the heartburn day count, meals, bedtimes, and medicines.

If earlier visits felt short, see rebuilding the gastroparesis story.

In Gastroparesis Journey, My Meds keeps doses and the Doctor Report brings it together.

How Gastroparesis Journey can help

A notebook can hold one bad day. The harder part is keeping heartburn, meals, and bedtime in one dated record.

Gastroparesis Journey is a personal gastroparesis tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. It records symptoms, medicines, test dates, and visits in one dated history. Below is what you can use and how each part helps:

• Daily check-in — A short guided pass across symptoms, mood, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds, and external factors, including nausea, fullness, vomiting, and bloating, so links you would not remember on your own show up side by side.
• Daily Journal — Freer notes, including voice when nausea makes typing hard, that add detail a score alone cannot show.
• Flare Tracker — Mark a day clearly worse than usual, so you can tell a one-off bad day from a repeating pattern.
• My Meds — Medicine names and timing, so you can line up a start date or dose change with symptom days.
• My Labs — Result dates for emptying studies, blood work, HbA1c, and other tests, so each result sits next to how you felt that month.
• Weekly Goals — Set one small aim, such as smaller dinners or a walk after meals, and see whether it held and whether symptoms changed.
• Learn — Short education topics on gastroparesis themes such as meal size, texture, hydration, and visit preparation.
• AI companions — Clara and specialist companions, including nutrition, already see your logged history, which helps with meal ideas or visit wording.
• My Care Team — A profile for each clinician, plus upcoming appointments and notes for each visit, used before, during, and after appointments.
• Doctor Report — Two views: the Appointment Planning Report helps you prepare what to ask, and Generate Report, opened from a saved doctor, builds a dated summary of your recent progress for that doctor.
• My Assessments — Structured check-ins that add context about you across weeks.
• Food Tracker — Meal and drink lines with size and texture, so you can line up meals with fullness and nausea.
• Period Tracker — Cycle dates, so you can see whether symptom days cluster at a certain point in the cycle.
• Weight Tracker — Weekly weights, so a downward trend shows up early against symptom weeks.
• Stool Tracker — Bowel movements with color, urgency, blood, pain, and related symptoms, so you can line up bowel changes with meals and symptom days.

Everything you log builds one history. Guided forms include the key questions, and you can add custom symptoms when you need your own labels. Gastroparesis Journey is free to download.

Sources

• NHS — Gastroparesis
• NHS — Heartburn and acid reflux

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